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Martin came an hour later to find me still on the floor, cradling my hand. “Joan,” he said, pulling me into his arms, holding the wrist of my injured hand. “Joan, I’m so sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I choked out. “I have to go after them. I have to find her and get her back. I can’t lose her!”
Martin had to restrain me for a brief minute, never letting go of my injured hand. “Joan, listen to me for a minute and calm down.”
“I can’t,” I cried. “Cathy’s on the list to die and no one’s moving! I don’t have anything to give the Light Bearers! If they find out who she is, she’ll die!”
He still didn’t let go. My struggles became weaker until I was resting against him again, trying to hold in my sobs.
“I have to go get her,” I said at last, my voice only shaking slightly. “I have to bring her back.”
“We can’t,” Martin said. “The Light Bearers have stated that no armies can come after them and all the kings and queens have ordered their people not to leave the castle. We can’t go after them.”
I didn’t try to protest, already knowing how futile it was. I couldn’t help the gesture of frustration and winced at the throbbing in my hand. “Ouch,” I said weakly.
He didn’t laugh, knowing how much I was really hurting. “I’ll find Joe,” he said quietly. He helped me up and sat me down on the bed before disappearing out the door.
As the silence sat in the room, I wiped at a tear. Then another. “Nothing’s changed,” I whispered to the empty room. “Cathy needs me, Mari needs me, and I’m going after them. I’m sorry, Martin, but I can’t sit and wait this out.”
Martin soon returned with Joe, who noticed my hand and instantly took it in his, the coolness sinking into my hand. “I’m sorry,” he said while he healed. “About Cathy and about everything.”
“Is there nothing we can do?” I pleaded. “Something other than sit around? We can’t just wait! The longer they have the hostages, the more in control they’ll be. They could dig in and wait us out, or they could start sending bodies to us while the rulers contemplate their families over their people!”
“No one can leave,” Joe said, repeating what Martin had told me. “No one can leave the castle. I’m sorry, Joan, but that’s the way it is.” He released my hand, resting his briefly on my shoulder. “The king and queen are doing everything they possibly can,” Joe said quietly. “They would step down if they had to, and they are prepared to do so in order to get Mari back. Perhaps they would also send Cathy back. You just have to let someone else fight this battle.”
I didn’t look up and Joe squeezed my shoulder before going out the door. Instead of leaving as well, Martin pulled me back beside him, onto his lap, and cradling me as if I were a child. “I’ve seen you do this to Mari and Cathy, and I don’t know if it’ll help, but I don’t know what else to do to help you.” He leaned back, pulling me with him until my head rested on his shoulder as he leaned against the headboard. I closed my eyes wearily.
“I don’t know what I said to her,” I whispered. “I don’t know what I last said to Cathy. I don’t remember if I told her I loved her.”
He held me, showing nothing other than sorrow and quiet understanding of my fear while I rested against him, praying for a miracle.
My mind was too busy to let me fall asleep. Martin surely had things he had to do, but he let me work things out, occasionally stirring to rub my back or brush a strand of hair behind my ear. He was going to hate what I was going to do. “I love you,” I whispered.
“I know,” he said softly. “I love you too, Joan.” He stayed still as I sat up, scrubbing at my eyes which felt dry and gritty. “You need to rest,” he said. “Do you want to stay here?”
I took a deep breath and let it out. “I need to face it.”
He knew what I meant. “Do you want me to come with you?”
I didn’t know. “No,” I said at last. “I need to do this alone.”
“I’m here if you need me.”
“I know.” I leaned against him for a brief moment, then straightened and walked slowly out. I paused in front of my room, took a deep breath, then opened the door and stared silently inside. The checkers game was still in the middle of the floor, the clothes set out for the next day, Mari’s books scattered on the floor. It hurt.
Suddenly, I scowled. I was acting like they were dead. “They’re not,” I muttered to myself, snapping the door shut. “They would have stopped me the last time, and they’re going to stop me this time. Cathy and Mari are alive and I’m going to get them. It’s as simple as that.” I put myself to work, packing and making sure I had everything I would need to rescue Mari, Cathy, and everyone else. My knives I already had. I had a little food ready until I got to a town, I had money to buy food, and I had several maps. I would have to go by foot; I wasn’t going to steal something and I wasn’t going to be able to buy something to take me after the Light Bearers. It would take time to follow them without another mode of transportation, but I didn’t have another option. As long as I was doing something, it was something. The only other thing I really needed was a place on where to go.
As I was sharpening my knives, thinking, waiting until dark to try to move, a thought struck and I paused. “Delilah,” I breathed. I tucked the stone in my pocket, sheathed my knife, and went to the door. Then I paused.
I didn’t know where the prisons were, which was where the Light Bearers would surely be held, and I wouldn’t be able to explain to anyone why I wanted down there. There were orders not to go, and I was fairly sure that I would need Captain Parkton’s or Commander Nelson’s approval to get into the prisons. That didn’t bother me, but I needed down there, and I didn’t even know if the prisons were on castle grounds.
As if my frustrated thoughts were heard, a timid knock sounded on the door. I yanked it open and Terris jumped. “Sorry, milady,” he said timidly.
I sighed, rubbed my forehead. “No, I’m sorry, Terris. I’m on edge; it’s not your fault. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see if you were going to cancel practice since everyone’s been kidnapped.”
About to reply, I stopped as an idea hit. “Terris,” I said slowly. “Do you know where the prisons are?”
“Prisons? Yeah. Why?”
I grabbed his hand and pulled him in, shutting the door. “Can you take me there?” I asked urgently. “I need to talk to the captured Light Bearers but I don’t know where they are.”
“They’re in the big prisons, underground,” Terris said.
“Under the castle grounds?” I shot out.
He nodded, caught up in the urgency of my tone. “We can get there in ten minutes,” he said excitedly. “I can show you where they are.” The look in his eyes dimmed. “But they’re on lockdown. The entire castle is on lockdown, but they’re on lockdown anyway because most of the prison down there is twenty-three hour confinement. It’s bad down there.” He looked a little frightened.
“I only need you to show me where it is,” I said. “You won’t come in with me, and no one will know you took me there. Will you take me?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s go!”
It was shortly before five by now, dinnertime, but there was no big dinner tonight. Everyone would be staying in their rooms and talking about this danger and tragedy and what would happen next. This worked to our advantage, as we saw almost no one on my way down the hallways and many steps to the Geidy dungeons. Terris stopped almost at the bottom and whispered that the prison entrance was down here. I quietly thanked him and continued down the stairs alone.
The guards at the first door tried to stop me, but one look at my face and they quickly stepped out of the way, recognizing me from my outfit and the green knife at my side. They didn’t even protest when I grabbed an ID badge off one’s uniform and used it to unlock the door. The second guards weren’t so smart. “You can’t go in there,” one said, a few inches shorter than me.
“I’m going in,” I said flatly, not up to being polite and diplomatic at this point.
“I just said you weren’t,” the short man said, frowning fiercely at me.
I stepped so we were inches apart. “Move or I’ll make my own path.”
The man stared at me, narrow-eyed, then quailed. “I’ll have to tell the captain,” he warned.
I flashed the ID badge at the sensor. “Tell whoever you like,” I said, pushing past him and hitting the button to unlock the doors. “I don’t care.”
The prison was large and tall, with grey walls and floors, the ceiling indistinguishable thanks to the lights. There were three levels of prisoners that I could see, and all of them were trying to look at me, the newcomer during their lockdown time. The entire room hummed with the electric walls that kept the occupants of the cells inside. There seemed to be a kind of wire mesh over each door, the edges disappearing into the ceiling, walls, and floor. I guessed electricity surged through it, zapping anyone who touched. Above each door was a small light. Most of the lights were activated, which I assumed meant their electric walls were running. I went to what looked like a computer, but hissed when I noticed it was password protected. Only a Geidy guard could access the information, and I wasn’t a Geidy guard.
“Who’s this?” someone called mockingly.
I went with a new plan. “I’m looking for Delilah,” I called, my voice echoing. “Where can I find her?”
“A friend of yours?” the mocking voice called again. I identified it as coming from the second level.
“I don’t see that’s your business. Where do I find Delilah?” I repeated.
“Well, darlin’, unless we get some answers, I don’t think you’re going to get any either,” a voice called out with a southern twang.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Let’s start with a name,” the drawl suggested.
“Do I get yours in return?”
“Sure, darlin’. Whatever you want.”
“Joan.”
“Well, Joan, I’m Mickey.”
I finally identified where this southern voice was coming from. Also second level, but the opposite side of the room, sixth cell from the end. “What do you want to know so I can get my information?”
“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve actually seen a girl like you up close. How’s about you just come up to meet me?”
“I wouldn’t do that,” another voice advised, softer, almost timid. This was a younger man, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, a nervous looking man who couldn’t have fought a wood bee. His was one of the few cells not currently lit with electricity, shown by the dark light above his cell. I wondered what he’d done to get here.
“Mickey’s dangerous,” the man warned again, voice soft as he kept glancing nervously at the ceiling. “It was a toss-up between level three and two for him, and he’s only on level two because there wasn’t room on level three.”
“The levels make a difference?”
“Oh, indeed they do. They rank us according to the crimes we commit. The higher you go, the worse it gets. You have to have a key to access the fourth floor, and...” his voice dropped to a whisper, “I’ve seen people brought out of there barely alive! Some of them didn’t make it.”
“Wilbert, what have I told you about gossiping with my associates?” Mickey called down. There was a touch of a threat to the tone.
Wilbert winced and shrunk back.
“Don’t pay any attention to Wilbert. He’s in here because he tried to make off with a roast chicken and ended up wrecking the royal car. Wilbert panics easily,” Mickey said.
“I wasn’t aware I was an associate of yours,” I said as I walked to the middle of the room. There was an elevator of sorts, a giant square that lifted up and down from a thick pole underneath. I hopped on, flashed the ID badge again, and sent it up.
“Darlin’, better time spent with me than with someone like Wilbert.”
“And what did you do?” I asked as the square rose higher.
“Not important.” The square stopped and I saw Mickey in front of me. He was black, tall, lean, had big hands, and had this look of absolute control despite that he was in a jail cell. “Well, well,” he said idly, unfolding from the bed to walk over to the door. “Aren’t you the pretty one?”
“Taken,” I said calmly. “Anything else before I get answers?”
“How about opening this door for me?” He indicated the door covered with the wire mesh currently humming with electricity.
“A comedian. Did you offend the king and queen of Geidy or something?”
Mickey barked out a laugh. “No, darlin’, I’m much more important than that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Then you must think I’m an idiot.”
“It was worth a shot.” He didn’t look the least bit repentant, and I didn’t expect him to. “Got a problem with it?”
I couldn’t let him see if he’d managed to offend me. No signs of weakness. “I don’t deal with people I don’t respect, and who don’t respect me.”
“Even if they’re important?”
“Unless you have what I want, you’re pretty much worthless to me. I see a lot of other people who might have the information I want.”
“But will they share it?” He looked around, as if he owned everything he saw, brown eyes cool when they met my hazel ones again. “You might say that information doesn’t get out unless I want it to.”
So he was important. His claims, coupled with the silence from the rest of the three levels I could see, proved he had power down here. I eased a hip on the guard rail for the platform I was standing on. If I was going to get what I wanted, I had to force Mickey down from his throne. “I don’t need you to tell me where Delilah is. I can easily go cell by cell until I find her, or someone else who has what I need.”
“And what do you need?”
“Like I said; information.”
He leaned against the wall, eyes mildly curious. “Well, darlin’, the type of information has a certain price.”
I checked my watch. “If this takes too long, I will happily go elsewhere.”
The sardonic voice laughed behind me. I turned to see what would have been an average-looking white man, except he was covered in tattoos, including one the curled up his neck to end with a tattooed knife across one cheek. It helped the cruel smile he wore. In case I hadn’t realized his obsession with knives, his hands were covered in scars and his eyes lingered on my blades. He also had an activated electric wall over his door. “And what would you be doing down here anyway, by yourself, no man to protect you?”
I gave a thin smile. “I have never needed a man to protect me.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“And you never answered mine,” I returned. “A simple question too. I assumed that higher levels indicated higher intelligence, but I’m not seeing any proof of that.”
The man was quick to anger and he stood threateningly. “You oughtta count yourself lucky I ain’t locked behind this wall,” he snarled, his voice slipping into a less-educated, northern twang. “You wouldn’t be standing long.”
I didn’t flinch. “You should consider yourself lucky you’re behind that wall. I’ve taken down bigger and meaner men than you and I’m losing patience.”
The man cooled instantly, studying me. “Nice blade,” he said, eyes on my green knife. “And backup. A third in your boot, another at your back, and one around your neck, although I wouldn’t call that one a blade, and the one disguised in your braid. Impressive, for a female.”
I gave a cool smile. “You have two minutes to prove to me you have the information I want, or I walk away. Time is expiring, gentlemen and ladies.” I could see females also, looking just as tough and ragged as the men.
“Over here, darlin’,” Mickey called. “You and me, let’s talk then.”
I turned to him. His eyes were still curious, but gleaming now. As if he knew something. “I’ve heard of someone like you. Black outfit, blond braid, knives, and especially the green knife you carry. That rings a bell.” He gave a light smile. “So tell me, Joan Ilion, what does the girl from the Flip Side want with a prisoner named Delilah?”
The entire room echoed with what he’d said, and the sudden hush showed that everyone had heard him. Then the murmurs started and everyone started to crane their heads to get a better look at me. I heard a few yelps as they came in contact with their electric walls, but I kept my eyes on Mickey. “You got all that from a green knife and a black outfit?”
“Heard lots of things about you lately,” Mickey said with a dangerous smile. “Captain Killjoy didn’t like you taking him down.”
“I can only assume you mean Captain Parkton.”
“We call him Killjoy in here.” Mickey still eyed me, as if he were trying to look right through me.
“You learn something new every day. One minute.”
Mickey didn’t seem rushed. “And why would you need Delilah?”
“Because she has information I need.”
“She might not be the only one that has the information you need, darlin’. Talk is cheap, and I hear it all.”
“I doubt you know what I want, unless you’ve recently become a Light Bearer.”
The jail became deadly silent. Mickey whistled slowly. “Light Bearers, huh? Well, well, darlin’, you sure don’t avoid the dangers in this world. Light Bearers are interesting fellows. Dedicated in an impressive way, and especially hard to recruit. Your Delilah would be a Light Bearer then. Interesting. What have they done to you?”
I didn’t answer, staring at him in at-ease position.
“All right, Joan, business time. Come on over here and let’s talk deals.”
I walked to the edge of the platform and leapt over, landing in front of the iron door in front of the electric wall. “What kind of deal then?” I wondered what in the world I could offer them. I hadn’t been prepared to deal with gang leaders and high-danger criminals.
“I want out.”
I instantly shook my head. “No deal. I don’t know what kind of influence you think I have, but I don’t have that much power, certainly not here. Besides, I’m sure there’s a good reason you’re in that cell and I’m not getting you out of it.”
“Not out of the cell, although that would be nice. I want out of Geidy.”
I stared at him. “And what makes you think I can do this? And why do you want out?”
He flashed a grin. “I’m not a Geidyian. I’m Pailioan, darlin’. A southern boy up here in Geidy? I’m missing the heat and I’m losing my tan. I’d like to go back to my roots. As for you, you have influence. I’ve heard some things about the Geidyian system that makes me think this is going to be my prime opportunity for some changes.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “What kind of things?” I asked slowly.
“That’s not in the deal, darlin’. You don’t want to know the deal we’d have to have for that. The deal is I want out, and I want you to get me out.”
I held his gaze for a long minute. “And if I can’t get you out?”
“Sooner or later, I’ll come to collect.”
I knew without anyone telling me that I didn’t want to owe Mickey anything. I had to give him something else, and I knew that for someone like Mickey, information was the key to everything. I took the offensive, leaning forward. “And what if I sweeten the deal by giving you information you don’t have?”
Mickey grinned, brown eyes lighting with the fun of the negotiations. “And what information would you have that I wouldn’t know?”
I gestured to the ceiling. “Tell me, with all your vast sources and knowledge, do you know what’s going on upstairs? Do you know what all the commotion is and why I’m down here? I’ll tell you every single detail you want to know in four minutes if you tell me where I can find the Light Bearers.”
Mickey stared at me for a long minute. “Girls, away,” he commanded.
The girls on either side of his cell moved to the farthest wall immediately. I wondered how he had so much power. “All right, darlin’. Tell me what information you have.”
“Not just yet. For this, I want your vow that if I can’t get you out of here that you won’t kill me or anyone else when you collect.”
“This had better be some good information.”
“You won’t hear it from anyone else.”
He studied me for a long moment. “Deal,” he said. “Forgive me if I don’t shake.” He gestured to the electric wall between us. “Tell me what you’ve got.”
I spoke in low tones, understanding that he would want to be the only one who knew this information. “The Light Bearers attacked today, this afternoon. They kidnapped the relatives of all the kings and queens in the children’s party.” Pain flared. “And a few others. They’re demanding that all the monarchs step down or they’ll start killing the hostages and eliminating the heirs to the thrones.”
“Bold,” Mickey said, eyes glowing, tone also low. “Even for Light Bearers. How are their royal majesties taking it? I assume that because you’re down here alone that they don’t intend on giving in.”
“Some are prepared to,” I answered. “I don’t know about the rest. They don’t seem to be able to do anything but argue.”
“What’s your stake in this? Why is Joan Ilion looking for the Light Bearers?”
I’d promised to give every detail. “They kidnapped Princess Mari, and my sister. I’m getting them back.”
“And you need to know where to go.”
“Yes.”
“And no one knows this information?”
“Someone might, but no one is to leave the castle. If the Light Bearers see armies following, they’ll kill the hostages that we’ve come after. I’m going alone.” I repeated word for word the conversations that had happened until I’d left, and Mickey looked positively gleeful. When the four minutes were up, I tapped my watch. “Your turn.”
“The Light Bearers are generally a low-level threat, mostly under eighteen, but because they’re rebelling against the government, they’re on level three lockdown. Two sections over. Block Three.” He gave a short, mocking bow. “A pleasure, darlin’. We must do it again sometime.”
I hopped back over to the platform. “Perhaps. Depends on if I’m alive to keep the other part of our bargain.”
Mickey chuckled as the platform lowered back to the ground.